It is known to join conveyer belts of elastomeric material continuously by the two ends of the conveyer belt being joined in the end regions after specific finishing of the rubber covering layers and by the ends being connected non-detachably to each other by vulcanization.
This is standard practice particularly in the case of steel cord conveyer belts and is used even following damage and subsequent repair of a steel cord conveyer belt. After the belt ends are overlapped and the exposed steel cord end sections placed one inside another and after rubber covering plates are placed on, a steel cord belt connection is produced by vulcanization. The outlay on apparatus and time for producing a steel cord belt connection of this type is high. The production process or conveying process is interrupted during this time.
In order to achieve at least an emergency operation of the conveyer system, it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,101 to expose some steel cord ends at both broken ends of the belt and to couple these ends frictionally to a separate coupling piece of firm material. However, this connection should be regarded merely as a short-term connection for an urgently-required conveyer system within the context of an emergency connection having reduced load-bearing capacity. After a possible shutdown of the conveyer system, the conveyer belt is customarily closed again continuously by vulcanization of the two ends thereof.
For certain conveyer belts, endless connections or end connections by means of mechanical connecting devices are also known. In this case, the particular belt end has a mechanical connecting part which is releasably coupled to the connecting part of the other belt end in each case. One such releasable connecting form is the hinge form. In this case, the belt ends each have a part hinge which is joined together in a complementary manner to the part hinge of the upper belt end in each case and is connected in a tension-proof manner thereto by a coupling rod guided through the crenellated, intermeshing hinge eyes.
These releasable connections are used particularly for conveyer belts which can be fitted only with a large outlay or which have to be more frequently exchanged, shortened or lengthened during operation. These hinge connections are predominantly used in the case of fiber-reinforced conveyer belts. In the case of steel cord conveyer belts, the hinge-like connections have not been able to gain acceptance, since the tension-proof connection of the hinge parts to the belt ends constitutes an unresolved problem.
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,131,077 to provide conveyer belt segments with a cord insert made of steel wires. The wire cord insert consists of a narrow rubber band which is laid helically over the width of the belt and receives some wires in the vulcanizable rubber mixture thereof, which is rolled out to form the band, lying next to one another in parallel in a horizontal plane. At each segment end, the rubber band is shaped by being laterally offset twice in each case to form a plurality of loops. When returning from each loop, the rubber band again undergoes a lateral offset and runs laterally next to the band supply in the same horizontal plane. The rubber band thereby forms a plurality of spaced-apart, rubberized loops lying in one plane at both ends of the conveyer belt segment. The steel wires are deflected from the direction thereof, running in the belt segment, to the loop region and from the latter. The loops which are formed lie at a distance from one another in the form of crenellations. Complementary, rubberized loops of the belt end of another conveyer belt segment can engage in the intermediate spaces formed in this manner. The two rows of loops are coupled to one another in a hinge-like manner by means of a coupling rod.
The steel wires shaped to form the loop have to be very sharply deflected. This leads to a significant reduction in the permissible tensile loading and to a risk of the steel wires breaking. It is apparent that only very thin steel wires can be deformed in this way at all. This construction is unsuitable for steel cord conveyer belts which transmit large forces and have relatively rigid steel cords. In addition, the thickness of the entire belt cross section is inevitably increased in the region of the belt end by the construction, which is disadvantageous when the entire conveyer belt circulates in the conveyer system.